Gardening luminaries: niki Jabbour

Gardening luminaries

Niki Jabbour, Halifax

Name and garden job.

Niki Jabbour, author of The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, Groundbreaking Food Gardens, and Veggie Garden Remix. I’ve also just finished my 4th book, which will be coming out likely late in 2020 or spring 2021. I also host The Weekend Gardener radio show, which celebrates 13 years in 2019. I write for savvygardener.com, newspaper columns, for magazines like Fine Gardening, and I speak at events across North America. And most importantly, I am a passionate vegetable gardener!

How did you get this job?

I studied horticulture in university and immediately after graduation started working in the industry. After a few years I started writing a column for our local newspaper and that led to more writing, radio, tv, and book work.

What would you do if you didn’t have this job?

My other plan was to be a science teacher.

How did you learn how to garden?

Both of my grandmothers and my mother were gardeners. Growing up, we always had a small summer vegetable garden and it was my favourite place to play. Eventually, by the time I was about twelve, I took it over and never looked back.

Earliest gardening memory.

Picking bouquets of forget-me-nots and lily of the valley with my sisters and sitting in the front yard making dandelion crowns for our hair.

Biggest ever gardening mistake.

Planting a pass-along plant from a friend, which turned out to have a piece of goutweed root in the soil! I’ve been pulling it up, smothering it, and swearing at it ever since.

What would you love to do that you’ve never been able to in the garden?

I’d love to have more structures in my garden; a pergola-topped sitting area to the side of my vegetable garden would be wonderful. Working full time and maintaining a large 20-raised bed vegetable garden and a 14-by-24foot poly tunnel doesn’t leave me a lot of extra time to tackle these types of projects.

Question you’re tired of hearing.

How do I get rid of goutweed? I am tired of thinking about goutweed! Ha ha.

All-time favourite gardening tool.

I love my garden fork and use it for everything. But for a small hand tool, I’d pick my Cobrahead, which is so handy for seeding, weeding, and everything else.

What plant do you over-use?

Catmint, but unapologetically as it’s a wonderful plant! It blooms for months and the pollinators love it. I’m beginning to plant large clumps of milkweed all over my property too, but I don’t think one can overplant milkweed as it’s so important for the monarchs.

What plant do other people under-use?

I’m primarily a vegetable gardener so I’d rather than pick a plant that people over-use. In a related answer I’d suggest that food gardeners try something new every year. We love our cucamelons, ground cherries, burr gherkins, snake gourds, soybeans, and zaatar. This was the topic of my latest book, Veggie Garden Remix and one that is near and dear to my heart as I’ve discovered so many wonderful new-to-me vegetables through my Lebanese in-laws.

Digging in the garden one day, you find a lamp; you rub it and a genie appears. What do you wish for?

Garden related? A crew to dig up new landscape beds and build more trellises and tunnels. Or maybe to travel to beautiful gardens around the world. The possibilities are limitless! h